The Royals signed outfielder Endy Chavez and infielder — and former American League Most Valuable Player Award winner — Miguel Tejada to Minor League deals.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are a work in progress. That is, they could look dramatically different on Opening Day than they do today. At the moment, the pieces don’t seem to fit.

Giancarlo Stanton is a force in the middle of the Miami Marlins’ lineup. But like any player in the organization, the 23-year-old slugger is not considered untouchable. The All-Star right fielder’s name has surfaced once again in trade talk.

Happy New Year, everybody, and by that, I mean let’s hope 2013 provides as much as 2012 was. Like having 20 teams within five games of a playoff berth at the All-Star Break and 14 of them still in the mix on Sept. 1.

This is the first of more than 100,000 pieces of content that Major League Baseball Advanced Media will post, stream, tweet, tag and share in 2013. So first of all Happy New Year and secondly let’s get the silly superstition thing out of the way right off the bat. Thirteen is not unlucky anymore.

There are single-superstar-swaps, classic rentals and old-school blockbusters. Then there were the two mega-trades that baseball saw in 2012, deals so enormous that even the non-waiver Trade Deadline couldn’t contain them.

There is no guidebook to what entails a Hall of Famer or a manual defining its criteria. Most of us vote based on our own vision of what the Hall of Fame is or should be, which, in reality, means we really don’t know what the Hall is supposed to be, which is a fascinating part of what goes into each ballot.

Syracuse and West Virginia, former partners in the Big East, met in a snow-covered Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. Syracuse, riding a stingy defense and a two-headed rushing attack, pounded West Virginia, 38-14.

After adding Josh Hamilton and Jason Vargas, have the Angels morphed into baseball’s top team? With few weaknesses showing, the Angels look like they are early favorites going into 2013.

While 2012’s calendar year is nearing an end, Orioles manager Buck Showalter continued to accumulate the hardware Saturday morning, as the 56-year-old skipper was named “Marylander of the Year” by the Baltimore Sun.

There are some players who don’t receive quite the recognition or publicity they deserve. Cleveland Indians 22-year-old right-hander Curtis “Trey” Haley fits that category.

New Year’s Day is around the corner with no deal in sight between the Nationals and free-agent first baseman Adam LaRoche, according to a baseball source.

Believe it or not, there was a baseball life for Hideki Matsui before the New York Yankees, but you’d never know it. Blame it on the Reggie Jackson thing.

Barring an unexpected snag in a physical exam, the Brewers will begin the New Year with another new bullpen arm, as two sources confirmed that the club and free-agent left-hander Mike Gonzalez have agreed to terms on a deal.

The Indians have reached an agreement to sell their SportsTime Ohio television network, the Cleveland-based regional sports network that has shown local telecasts of Indians games for the last seven seasons, to FOX Sports Media Group.

Left-hander Chris Narveson doesn’t mind that he will have a lot more competition in 2013 for a spot in the Brewers’ starting rotation.

Before he was general manager of the Phillies and Astros, Ed Wade earned a journalism degree at Temple University. So maybe it isn’t surprising that, when he found himself with some time on his hands, he decided to write a book. What might be unexpected, though, was the subject matter.